Physical Contact
by RandomEncounter
Summary: Shepard has started to notice things. Grunt's not such a bad guy, Legion wants to know about love, and he has fallen for a girl that could get hospitalized from a mere kiss. Shepard's got his work cut out for him.
1. Noticing Things

Have fun. I liked reading my own story. I hope you like reading it too.

Also most people seem to have a need to state the fact that they do not own (insert media here). I personally think its stupid. The fact that you uploaded to **FANFICTION**.net. anybody reading it already knows you don't own it! Rants over. Enjoy!

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Shepard, Tali, and Legion had just come back from a a particularly nasty mission from an 'uninhabited' planet. Uninhabited, unless you count zombies and Geth as people. Regardless Shepard (and Tali) had decided to clean up a bit before going to the bridge.

Shepard arrived at the bridge, ten minutes later, after changing into his casual clothes. Tali was already there, not having very much armor to remove, and so was Legion, who was always ready. He made it a mental note to ask what exactly goes through his 'mind' later.

To his mild surprise he also found Grunt and Jack, who were conversing off to the side. He decided that he might as well debrief Tali and Legion to do whatever it is that they did, and now that he thought about it he didn't really know what Legion did.

"Alright; Tali, Legion your free to do as you will until further notice." He was staring blankly off into space thinking about an assortment of things, from what upgrades to buy next, to who needed updated equipment, the amount of money both those needed, etc. Unfortunately he wasn't actually paying attention to exactly where in space he was actually staring.

"Um... Captain. Whats wrong do I...I...have something on my suit." chimed in Tali's ridiculously seductive (he didn't know why) voice. He came out of his reverie, only to find out where exactly his eyes were looking.... directly at Tali's pelvic area, though he was sure that most people would think he was staring at her crotch. Tali, bless her heart, was dancing around trying to get a good look at some type of stain or tear on the groin area of her suit. Tilting his head slightly, he realized, that she had an extremely shapely and attractive figure. Of all the multitude of things going through his head at the time, Shepard also realized that this was not the first time he had had these thoughts. Finding nothing she looked up from herself and locked onto Shepard.

"Eh...Ah..." He smiled his most winning smile, which came out more like a goofy grin. She looked up and he could vaguely see her eyes not entirely sure what her expression was. "Don't worry its nothing".

Not knowing exactly how he knew, Shepard was sure she was cocking an eyebrow at this. Again he tried the winning smile, only to have it falter, which further deteriorated into a sigh. She closed the distance between them to an almost tiny amount of space. With only literally two feet between them (possibly borne from necessity back on the migrant fleet), he almost felt unnerved, except for the fact that she was female and he could handle a lady. Well most of the time.

He found himself being scrutinized by the Quarian. He gave a weak smile and said, "Something the matter." She continued to look at him and he realized he could kinda see into her mask. Her features were definitely human-like and feminine on top of that, but he couldn't make out any specific details. He decided it was his turn to raise an eyebrow of his own smiling the entire time. "See something ya like?"

Her head tilted as if she were rolling her eyes. She traced a finger lightly down the center of his chest. "Oh, sure why not?". She took a step back.

"Wait a minute, are you actually suggesting something." His smiled changed, signifying the first time he felt he had an advantage in this conversation since it started. This time he stepped forward somewhat trapping her.

"What could I possibly be suggesting?" She said while folding her arms across her abdomen and tilting her head to the side. "I mean, a young women gets rescued by a dashing Commander who lets her join his crew and then goes off to save the galaxy." She closed the remaining distance while saying, "How could she possibly develop any interest in him." Her voice had taken on a slightly playful tone which to her already sexy voice was starting to melt through his increasingly thin mental defenses. Clearly thinking she had the advantage she placed a hand on her hip and did a hugely appealing lean. He decided then in light of their past relationship and her current status as a crew member again, not to mention his new-found attraction, that he was ready for this.

Trying not to grin, He said, "You have nothing to be embarrassed about, Tali. I feel the same way." He had calm, serene expression, only partial broken by a small smile, on his face, signifying his honesty. This shocked Tali who exclaimed, "Really!", in a surprised voice. "You didn't... you never..." She obviously wasn't expecting it and in a half hopeful voice she replied, "Well good." She obviously didn't know what to do or say, fidgeting slightly before saying in a happy, anxious and high pitched voice, "Anyways, I should get to work. But thanks... For talking... And telling me that..."

Obviously uncomfortable she skirted past him, letting out a small, almost inaudible, yelp as she bumped him, and tried to calmly walk away. He watched her walk off, watched her hips sway back and forth, once again oh so seductively. He was starting to wonder if she did it on purpose.

Without realizing, until the door closed behind her, what he was doing he noticed he was leaning forward slightly, head cocked to the side, mouth open.

He snapped back upright, breathing out heavily, but too late, Jack let out a piercing, condescending laugh. "Wow, can't wait to see how that unfolds. I mean, I'm no expert but fucking her is gonna be a little tough, considering the reason she actually wears that suit." He kept his expression under control.

Surprisingly, Grunt lightly (as light as Krogans can actually hit that is) punched her. She looked ready to fight as she whipped around but he only shook his head and said, "If there is one person in this screwed up galaxy that deserves a brief respite, its Shepard. That being said..." He gazed up at Shepard who had been listening to everything thus far with a neutral expression, "She does have a point." With a grunt he walked off and disappeared behind one of the doors. He was slightly amazed Grunt had actually supported him in this, and added it to the list of things to think about when he had time.

Jack looked back at him and shrugged, and then followed Grunt, apparently placated by what he had said, also surprising. He jerked his head to the right, cracking his neck and then mirroring the movement to the left. Joker was just leaning back in his chair, feet propped on the control panel, silent.

He heard some silent mechanical clacking behind him. A mechanical voice resounded to his left. "Shepard-Commander. Additional data is requested." He watched as Legion's 'head', which moved animatedly unlike his cousins, turned to where Tali had left to go to engineering.

"I'll give it if I have it, Legion." He replied back. Legion turned his flashlight eye towards him again. "Installed sensors have detected large excretion of chemicals in the air. Most notable chemical is female Quarian pheromones." Shepard smiled at this, adding that to his list of evidence that whether she admitted it or not she was attracted to him. "But the only Quarian on-board is Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, and she is in a sealed environmental suit."

Shepard's stomach dropped. He didn't know all the details but from what he understood, even casual contact, without protection and antibiotics, with anybody could lead to severe infections and even death in a Quarian.

"Legion!" The Geth instantly perked up, ready for combat. "Whens the first time you detected it!"

"One hour and twenty-four minutes ago with a spike when you were conversing." His eye was moving trying to understand Shepard's facial expression.

'She's been exposed for an hour and a half already!" He started bounding down the hallway, heading toward the engineering core.

"C'mon we have to warn her!"

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End. I tried to make the scenario as original as possible while maintaining character depth and behavior (minus Shepard of course, who can be whatever you want. I just decided to make him a good guy). I did use some dialogue from the game, however i altered it slightly. Also I'm not promising a continuation of this story (after all I wrote it for my own amusement). But know that I'll try. Ideas for stories typically come to me when I'm lying in bed trying to sleep so if there is any descrepensy please let me know. Now I'm off to play some more Mass Effect 2 :)

update: just fixed some grammar that was annoying the hell out of me, sorry still new to this site and fiddling around with things.


	2. What is 'Love'

Thanks all for the surprisingly good feedback. Now here is the second chapter (obviously) i pretty much know where i'm gonna take it,that said expect semi-regular updates but I'm not making any promises. Note that i will finish it though (for those that care) ...eventually.

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"C'mon we have to warn her!"

Before Shepard had uttered the last word Legion had sprung into action already keeping pace. His mind raced with all kinds of horrible diseases and crippling parasites that could possibly kill her. 'Damn! Why do I have have to be such a pessimist, yeah...it could be a simple cold.' Then a wave of depression hit his gut like a punch. He knew even if it was a cold she could be in serious danger.

Arriving in the Engineering Core, one of his fears was waiting. She was sprawled out on the floor, face down, wheezing. He finally saw the cause of all this, a finger long tear at the nape of her neck. It appeared that she was tried to leave but couldn't make it out. He immediately ran over to her, turned her around and using his arm as support, propped her up. He could see those bright eyes under her visor look at him. Her hand weakly touched the side of his face, as he heard her mumble "sorry" before being wracked by a series of coughs.

She was limp in his arms, focusing all her strength on just trying to breathe. He lifted her up and started to half-run, half-walk his way toward the infirmary. She was impossibly light. 'Do all Quarians weigh so little?' Legion was opening doors ahead of him, trying to make his and by extension Tali's transition easier. Halfway there, to his surprise, he saw some medical personnel with a stretcher running down the hall. One of them yelled "Commander" as he noticed Shepard.

"How'd you guys know to come down here?" he yelled. To which they responded, "Joker told us over the intercom." Shepard made it a mental note to thank him for that, and also realized he wasn't the only one that called him 'Joker'.

A few seconds later he was depositing Tali onto the stretcher as carefully as he could. One of the orderlies propped her chin up to keep her airway open. While continuing to the infirmity he had a few seconds to think but the mess that was his mind could come up with nothing but worry over his squad member and then he had a disturbing thought occur in his mental haze. Would he really be this worried this much for anyone else he knew? It was definitely thought provoking but when he actually had a tangible idea, of course the universe dictated that he do something else, cause at that instant they burst through the door of the infirmary.

The room erupted in a flurry of activity. With periodic phrases blasting through the rest. "someone start an IV", "put her on steroids to open up her airways and...", "you! Patch up the suit!", "Give her Full Spectrum Antibiotics to cut secondary...". One of the orderlies, seemingly waiting in reserve, caught his confused expression and made his way toward him.

"Commander, if you would please leave, you may get in the way." She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and gently started to lead him outside. Biting back a quick retort to his subordinate he realized she was right. The infirmary, while not small, had many medical personnel inside it. He slowly made his way back into the hallway to find Legion standing stone still. The door closed behind him with a whiz. He sighed deeply in a halfhearted attempt to calm his rapidly beating heart.

"Legion if you ever sense something like that again, let me know ASAP, you understand." He voice had the hard edge of leader laced with anger and sadness at the current predicament. He looked up trying not to glare at the Geth in front of him and when he thought about it if Legion didn't say anything at all she could be suffering even more down in the Engineering Core and possibly be dead until someone stumbled upon her.

"Yes" came his mechanical response. If it was possible, he thought Legion looked downtrodden as his moving face was flattened and did not move.

"Look I'm sorry Legion but I was seriously terrified for a few seconds there, and I'm seriously scared now." He placed his hand around his forehead squeezing his temples lightly. His mind was blank now, and he felt calm for the first time in...what it had only been like ten minutes for all that to happen. He sighed again.

"Fear?" came that mechanical voice again. To which he nodded in reply. Then came a question he wasn't expecting. "Why?"

He smiled a small one-sided smile and said aloud, "Why indeed." Legion only looked on in what Shepard interpreted as confusion. They stood there in silence for a few moments that could have easily been a half hour but he resisted the urge to check the simple watch he wore around the Normandy. He started to fidget around clearly uncomfortable under the Geth's gaze. "What." he said a little too harshly.

"Additional data requested." Legion said. His head tilted to the side like a curious child.

"Its a little early to tell but I think i have fallen in love with her." Shepard said with a sheepish smile and a sigh. Legion's 'eye' twitched slightly, clearly trying to read his body language. Then he surprised him a little by saying, "As per earlier request..." His 'head' twitched a little. "...Sensors detect a spike of chemicals akin to those excreted earlier, originating from you Shepard-Commander, insufficient data on Human anatomy to verify what the chemical is." Shepard smiled at this, shaking his head. Legion perked up seeing this. "Is this what you call love the, the excretion of pheromones and other chemicals."

"It sounds kind of nasty when put that way but that is one part of Love." He had to wonder what brought on this level curiosity from Legion. Still its better than him not being curious and two dimensional. Legion looked away for a second and turned back. "additional data is required to understand 'love'."

He laughed at this almost easing the tension in his mind though Tali's sickness still clawed at the back of his consciousness. "I hear ya buddy, I need more information about this too." Legion stood still once more as if thinking. The silence wasn't uncomfortable but it was definitely missing something.

After what seemed an eternity the door behind him whizzed open again.

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Sorry i like to kind leave cliff hangers it kinda keeps you interested y'know. that being said i hope you enjoyed this one too cause although i write for myself i do kinda care what people think of it. update: fix grammar and i seem to randomly leave out words here and there.


	3. A 'Little' Sick

Chapter 3 for ya guys, enjoy.

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After what seemed an eternity the door behind him whizzed open again.

Shepard whipped around and the first thing he noticed was Tali's mask was hooked up to an air tank he assumed was filled with oxygen. The second was that the medical personnel were wearing surgical masks. He realized that the masks meant it was contagious, but the major question in his mind burned its way through his common sense.

"Well, is Tali gonna be alright?" Shepard said. He breathed in and something tasted awful. His senses were absorbing too much information. Everything smelled too strong, the lights were too bright. His own voice sounded like a trumpet, the constant rhythmic beeping of the EKG was like a fire alarm. Everything felt like hot. He heard his own voice which, in contrast to the other noise, sounded like he was talking underwater and then it hit him like a brick, he was sick too.

"It looks like he was affected too, hurry up and get him to a bed!"

The people in front of him started for him but they didn't make it. His vision swam, he tried his best but he couldn't breathe. He tried desperately to gain the one breath his body sorely needed and he used last of his breath to try and clear his throat. His knees hit the floor with a painful, hot whack. The awful feeling of suffocating overtook him until his body started to breathe unconsciously. He couldn't take it. He wanted it to stop. He tried to get up, move his arms, legs, do anything but he he had no strength to move them. He was weak and slack-jawed. He felt his body move forward and his face smack off the hard ground. He lay there gasping for breath, his pain compounded by the fact that he bit his tongue, until he felt hands grab him and move him, every hand feeling like hot iron against his skin. Panic rose up in him like a balloon.

He heard his own voice, despite the fact that he could hardly breathe, rasp out "What the..." he vaguely felt himself cough through the searing pain, "...Hell...is happen...ing?" Unlike before he couldn't hear anything except, almost vibrating, mumbling sounds as the orderlies were yelling. He felt them put a mask on. The pain of the mask on his skin was off put by the small relief it provided his breathing problem.

His vision was distracted by a lone light, to his left, he could vaguely make out Legion's figure. In his mental haze he thought Legion looked like an angel bathed in blinding light. It looked like he was trying to make his way toward Shepard but the orderlies were preventing him. This wouldn't stop a normal Geth, but Legion knew that these people were allies so it was trying to not to hurt them but he still trying to get to Shepard anyway. "Legion!" Legions one flashlight eye hurt his eyes so he closed them. "Stop!" he yelled before gasping for air once again. He didn't know if Legion stopped for he was distracted by blazing red light on the back of his eyelids. He felt two fingers, like hot cattle prods, rip his eye open.

He was blinded when one of the orderlies flashed one of those annoying bright lights on each of his eyes. He felt anger rise painfully in his gut and swatted the hand. He managed to move into a sitting position, adrenaline pumping fiercely and fighting off the hands, when a couple of them of them grabbed his arm and injected him with something. He felt his arm go slack and felt the nasty feeling travel through his body, battling against the huge adrenaline rush he was feeling. His adrenaline was losing the slow battle.

He felt himself lay back down. Despite his panic he felt extremely tired. His muddled mind tried to power its way through it but the effects of the injection were too overwhelming. He felt tired and sleep quickly overtook him. His last thought was of the Quarian to his right and how she was going to make it through this if it affected him, a human, so powerfully. His chest ached painfully for her before the numbness set in.

He felt the effects of the injection crush him into unconsciousness.

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Thanks for watching folks, tune in sometime in the future for the next installment of "Physical Contact".

Seriously can't wait to continue this. Believe it or not, I just opened up the opportunities for a lot of things with this one so hope for the best. Oh and yes my chapters are short (generally between 800 and 1500 words, give or take) but it allows me to build a higher level of suspense. See ya in a bit!


	4. Blind Sight

I didn't like I how i wrote it so i edited it. Here ya go my peoples, for what its worth.

Shepard did not dream. He felt himself floating in some type of limbo. He could think like he had consciousness but he knew he was unconscious and it troubled him to no end. He felt like he was in a dream that nothing was happening and he felt cold and lonely. Perhaps it was that thought that forcefully woke him up.

Shepard sleepily open his eyes, yet only darkness awaited him. He thought that the lights were merely out and started to search for ever present, telltale signs of light. A sinking feeling set in his stomach as he couldn't find any light anywhere. He was, however, ecstatic to find he could still hear. What made him so happy was that he heard the loud EKG to the left of his head but he also heard a second one to his right.

He started to laugh softly at his misfortune. 'I'm blind... Great thats just what I need right now...fuck!' He thought bitterly. He stopped that thought and smiled, thinking, 'well I'm taking this pretty well. And I can still hear so I guess thats something.'

His rueful smile burned his face like a sunburn that went to the bone so he quickly stopped. There was the sound of feet shuffling in the distance. He futilely tried to look where it was coming from. Realizing that wouldn't work he strained his ears to try to listen instead. He heard what sounded like high heels 'who is wearing high heels?' he thought to himself, alongside a heavier pounding footstep, probably Grunt. It was faint but he heard a more steps but he couldn't tell who those belonged to.

"Ah! Shepard. Seems you are awake at last." came Mordin's quick voice. The shuffling of feet reached its zenith and cut itself off. He tilted his head toward the voice and tried again to force himself to see, to no avail.

"Mordin... Hows Tali." talking burned his throat, though not nearly as bad as before.

He started to wonder how long he was actually out when Mordin gave a little laugh and said, "Odd. Usually survival of oneself takes precedence...hmm." He heard a deep throated half grunt/half laugh come from Grunt. His lips formed a scowl in the hopes that Grunt saw it. The laughter from him only grew into croaky laughter.

Still scowling he reiterated, "So...How is... she doing?" the burning sensation stopped him from saying more.

"She, like you, will be fine, fortunately." Mordin's high speed voice chimed in.

"OK...What the hell...happened...then?" He coughed painfully. Once he regained his composure he continued, "Why am I blind...Why does it burn everywhere?"

"You see when you last sortied, you came in contact with a type of synthetic bacterium. Now normally it wouldn't matter as the body's immune system fights off most infections on its own without any symptoms but this one is specifically engineered to activate at a certain time, so to speak." Shepard cocked an eyebrow asking for a more detailed explanation. "You see this bacteria is released into the atmosphere, where it then enters through your respiratory system, and into your cardiovascular system. Then after incubating for a small amount of time they release minute amounts of material you are allergic to, into your body tissues via the bloodstream, literally causing your body to start have an allergic reaction. Its quite ingenious really, it isolates and manufactures what you are allergic to. Turns out all humans are allergic to something."

The high heels clacked impatiently and the female voice belonging to them spoke. "C'mon hurry up!" she said harshly. The silence was uncomfortable.

"Whats wrong Miranda, whats got your panties in a bunch?" Shepard couldn't control his mouth when he said that, and grinned stupidly, awaiting the wrath that was sure to come. When silence followed, he never wished he could see more than he did right now. 'Was it a look of livid rage, or perhaps a blushing school girl, nah it could never be that,' he thought. He couldn't hear anything so he decided not to try his luck.

"Well... as I was saying, they release the allergens into your body but fortunately for both you, your bodies have processed most of it out. We would give you antibiotics but its been engineered so that most current types wont work." He heard Mordin shuffling over to his right. "However, despite being exposed to significantly larger amounts of this bacterium than Tali, her immune system is so much weaker that we are currently giving her those antibiotics so that they fight off secondary infections which could cause havoc on her nearly non-existent immune system."

"OK... that was oddly detailed and fluent, didn't take you long did it?" Shepard said. "So what about this blindness I have." He was used to the burning in his throat now. "And why was that crap in the atmosphere anyway?"

Again it was Mordin who spoke. "We believe that it was of Collector origin. We also believe it was never to be used as a killing agent, just to incapacitate humanoids for harvesting. However it is incomplete, so were not sure." He heard shuffling again and some feet moved to the right and he heard plastic being ripped, metal clanging, pens scribbling. Then it stopped. Mordin's voice chimed in yet again. "As for your blindness as far as I can tell it will pass as soon as your immune system purges you of the bacteria and heal sufficiently. You see the bacteria centralized themselves in your nasal pathways and... yes see you dont even realize but you can smell either, and human eyes are very close to your noses"

He breathed a heavy sigh at this prognosis. Then he heard something to his right, the sound of a whip of air escaping. He heard Grunt whistle in amazement and Miranda scoff in impatience. 'Grunt can whistle?' he thought to himself.

"Careful with her mask nurse, make sure it doesn't come into contact with any surfaces." Mordin chirped.

"Whoa, wait! Did you just take Tali's mask off?" He retconned is earlier thought, and wished he could see right now more than ever. "Aww man, I can't believe I'm missing this. What does she look like? Well?" The silence was palpable, then he heard Grunt laugh his slow deliberate laugh. He ground his teeth until it hurt.

Then the Commander part of Shepard came out. "Okay you guys back to your duties. Miranda, obviously your in charge until I'm able."

"Yes sir..." came Miranda's combative voice.

Grunt laughed even harder as he stomped off. "Get well soon... Battlemaster..." he said sarcastically. "I'm no judge of beauty but I think humans would find her... attractive." That was the last heard of those scant details.

"Well, I'm off Commander got cultures to study. You should be up and about in a couple days, though that is just an estimate." He heard a sucking sound as the mask was replaced. "Looks like she has a major inner ear infections... looks like we will stay the course with treatment." He heard a female voice tweet in acceptance. The padding footsteps he now attributed Mordin faded in the distance.

'Now I'm bored.' Shepard thought to himself.

He looked to his right, ignoring the dull burn which he became aware of once again.

He was greeted with darkness.

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Hope you liked it!


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